This patent application is related to a contemporaneously filed application entitled xe2x80x9cCABLE END CONNECTOR ASSEMBLYxe2x80x9d, invented by the same inventor and assigned to the same assignee as the present application.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable connector assembly, and particularly to a cable connector assembly transmitting power and signals.
2. Description of Related Art
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (serial ATA) is a recent industry standard serial interface for high speed transmission. The Serial ATA connector standard, generally for disk drives and storage peripherals, includes power and signal members respectively mounted a plurality of electrical spring contacts for providing a power and a signal transmission.
Generally, a conventional electrical cable connector according the serial ATA, the power and signal cable are separately assembled to two electrical connectors for respectively mating with a complementary connector mounted on the mother board. Such a connecting operation is laborious and inconvenient. Furthermore, to form two separate connectors on each of the cable end and on the mother board is expensive, which is disadvantage from the point of view of cost. It is desired to provide a new cable connector assembly connecting the power wire end and signal cable end together for mating with the complementary connector at the same time so that manufacturing and assembling process can be simplified and cost can be reduced.
The cable connector assembly connecting the power wire end and signal cable end together, on the other hand, further need to be provided with a hot-plug functions according with serial ATA. Generally, the contacts thereof are designed to have different dimensions for asynchronously mating/breaking with corresponding contacts of the complementary connector. Understandably, the manufacturing method in this situation, therefore, also adds expense.
Hence, a improved cable connector assembly is required to overcome the disadvantages of the related art.
Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide a cable connector assembly integrally terminating power and signal members for transmitting power and signals to a complementary connector on a mother board.
In order to achieve the object set forth, a cable connector assembly in accordance with the present invention includes an electrical connector, a printed circuit board, a cable and a plurality of power wires. The electrical connector has a housing and a plurality of signal contacts and power contacts mounted in the housing. The cable contains a plurality of center conductors each electrically connecting with a corresponding signal contact. The printed circuit board is assembled in the housing. The power contacts and the power wires are respectively electrically mounted on the printed circuit board to provide power transmission therebetween. A cover is designed to over-mold the structurally connection portion of the electrical connector, the printed circuit board, the cable and the power wires. The cable connector assembly is finally assembled on a panel by a pair of screws.